Hello!
First time poster. My wife and I purchased a home in Southern Wisconsin with a pond last summer. The previous owners explained that we "just run the pumps when we want the waterfall on" which led to a summer and fall of fighting mass amounts of string algae. I've since found this to be incorrect. So this year I vowed to do it the right way, clean it, and try to keep it nice.
Our pond isn't a large one. It is a 7ft long by 5ft wide triangle that has an average depth of 2ft. It's probably <300 gallons total. We have a 350GPH fountain pump (Tetra FK5) as well as a two tiered waterfall supplied by a 4500GPH Aquascape pump in a skimmer basket. The only current inhabitant of the pond is a water lily in a bucket, though we would like a couple goldfish if possible. I attached a photo below.
After cleaning the pond Friday and starting both pumps I ran into an issue. I would have to keep adding water to the skimmer box for the waterfall as every few hours (1-2) the pump would begin to starve. After closer inspection, there was a stone affixed partially blocking the skimmer. After removing this, it flowed much better, but it still lost water level over the course of 8-10 hours. I have turned the waterfall off since Sunday evening. Since then, the pond has not lost any water, and neither has the lower waterfall bucket (the upper bucket back drains into the lower bucket when I shut off the pump). I guess my question is, is this normal? Do you need to keep adding water to the waterfall for the first few days until things are saturated (filter mats, lavarocks)? If not, what would you suggest? There doesn't seem to be a leak in the pond itself, or in the piping to at least the lower waterfall bucket. Anything you recommend would be helpful. Thanks for your time.
First time poster. My wife and I purchased a home in Southern Wisconsin with a pond last summer. The previous owners explained that we "just run the pumps when we want the waterfall on" which led to a summer and fall of fighting mass amounts of string algae. I've since found this to be incorrect. So this year I vowed to do it the right way, clean it, and try to keep it nice.
Our pond isn't a large one. It is a 7ft long by 5ft wide triangle that has an average depth of 2ft. It's probably <300 gallons total. We have a 350GPH fountain pump (Tetra FK5) as well as a two tiered waterfall supplied by a 4500GPH Aquascape pump in a skimmer basket. The only current inhabitant of the pond is a water lily in a bucket, though we would like a couple goldfish if possible. I attached a photo below.
After cleaning the pond Friday and starting both pumps I ran into an issue. I would have to keep adding water to the skimmer box for the waterfall as every few hours (1-2) the pump would begin to starve. After closer inspection, there was a stone affixed partially blocking the skimmer. After removing this, it flowed much better, but it still lost water level over the course of 8-10 hours. I have turned the waterfall off since Sunday evening. Since then, the pond has not lost any water, and neither has the lower waterfall bucket (the upper bucket back drains into the lower bucket when I shut off the pump). I guess my question is, is this normal? Do you need to keep adding water to the waterfall for the first few days until things are saturated (filter mats, lavarocks)? If not, what would you suggest? There doesn't seem to be a leak in the pond itself, or in the piping to at least the lower waterfall bucket. Anything you recommend would be helpful. Thanks for your time.
